The present invention relates to a system for guiding converged sunlight or the like to a desired location by means of an elongate light conducting member for various applications such as room lighting. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a light conduction arrangement which effectively distributes part of light from a main conduction path to a branch conduction path.
Effective use of solar energy is the key to energy saving today and has been studied in various fields actively. For the most effective use of solar energy, solar energy has to be availed as it is without being transformed into another kind of energy such as thermal energy or electrical energy. In light of this, I have made various proposals for an illumination system which utilizes solar energy. The illumination system employs a fiber optic cable through which the sunlight converged by a lens or the like is conducted to a desired location to stream out thereat to illuminate the ambience.
Where an attempt is made to utilize solar energy for illumination in the manner described, the usefulness will be significantly enhanced if an arrangement is available for distributing the light propagating through the cable to a desired branch conduction path. It is also desirable that a quantity of light steered into the desired branch path be controllable. These have not been implemented satisfactorily so far in the art concerned.